Mission and Work

Mission

iMentor builds mentoring relationships that empower students from low-income communities to graduate high school, succeed in college, and achieve their ambitions.

What We Do

iMentor builds mentoring relationships that empower students from low-income communities to graduate high school, succeed in college, and achieve their ambitions. Students work with their mentors one-on-one, in-person and online, to develop strong personal relationships, nurture a college aspiration, navigate the college application process, and build critical skills that lead to college success. In New York City, iMentor partners with public schools to ensure every student in the schools receives a mentor. iMentor also provides its curriculum, technology, and best practices to help nonprofits run effective programs in the iMentor model. Since 1999, iMentor has connected 13,000 students with mentors. This year, iMentor is serving 3,500 mentor-mentee pairs in New York City and 2,150 more nationwide. iMentor has been recognized through funding by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Lumina Foundation, the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, and the Robin Hood Foundation, and is a subgrantee of the federal Social Innovation Fund.

Our Programs

iMentor NYC is a school-based mentoring program matching public high school students in New York City in one-to-one relationships with college-educated mentors. iMentor partners with public schools to ensure every student at these schools receives a mentor and to augment existing guidance and college counseling programs. Mentor-mentee pairs are matched for three to four years and exchange weekly emails and meet monthly in person.

iMentor Partner Programs is a national partnership program that brings iMentor’s mentoring model to communities nationwide. iMentor Interactive provides programmatic support, curricula, technology tools, and consulting to non-profits so they can implement their own effective mentoring programs in the iMentor model.

Our History

Created in 1999 by John Griffin, founder of Blue Ridge Capital, and two public interest lawyers, Richard Buery and Matt Klein, the program began with 49 students in a single school in the South Bronx. This year, iMentor’s New York City mentoring program will serve more than 5,000 students. In 2007, iMentor launched its Partner Programs to help nonprofits and schools implement high-quality mentoring programs in the iMentor model. iMentor has partnerships with 11 organizations, including Big Brothers Big Sisters Lone Star, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Pittsburgh, and the Hispanic Scholarship Fund.